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The Trump Defense Agenda

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) banded together today over concerns about potential conflicts of interest for John Rood, a Lockheed Martin executive nominated to be under secretary of defense for policy.

The Pentagon has rolled back a controversial requirement that a contractor engage in a "technical interchange" with a Defense Department employee for its independent research and development costs to be considered allowable.

President Trump has said he will allow South Korea and Japan to buy "substantially increased" amounts of U.S. weapons, but administration officials could not point to any specific sales and a major arms transfer has not been approved for either nation since early February.

The Pentagon is now calling an effort to curb Russia in Europe a "deterrence," rather than a "reassurance," initiative, as part of the Trump administration's push for NATO allies to contribute more to collective defense on the continent, according to the Defense Department official in charge of NATO policy.

The White House Office of Management and Budget wants the Defense Department to give “special focus” to missile defense, hypersonic weapons, autonomous and space-based systems as well as other technologies when drawing up research and development investments for fiscal year 2019, according to a recent memo.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will travel west this week to Washington and California, where he will visit the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental and seek to strengthen ties with technology companies in Silicon Valley, according to a Pentagon spokesman.

President Trump is vowing to grow the Navy's fleet to 350 ships -- a nearly 26 percent boost over its existing inventory of 276 -- but naval experts and members of Congress are questioning whether he's focused on the right metric.

The Trump administration's nominee for Pentagon acquisition chief told Senate lawmakers she wants to be a "change leader" in the Defense Department's acquisition of software and information technology, an area that has drawn increased interest from lawmakers.

Former Textron Systems CEO Ellen Lord, who has been nominated to become the Pentagon's next under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, promises to facilitate the orderly disestablishment of the office and then plans to prepare to become the Defense Department's first-ever under secretary for acquisition and sustainment.

Ellen Lord, who worked as chief executive of Textron Systems, pledged to recuse herself from all matters in which Textron is a party if she is confirmed as the next under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, according to a letter sent to a Pentagon ethics official.

The White House Office of Management and Budget is criticizing the House version of the fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill for "misuse" of Overseas Contingency Operations funds, according to a July 11 statement of administration policy.

The president's pick to serve as Army under secretary, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, acknowledged the Army's struggles to modernize its platforms and committed to continued reform of the acquisition process.

Richard Spencer, President Trump’s nominee to be the next Navy secretary, has not decided on the best strategy to fund the service's top acquisition priority: the multibillion-dollar Columbia-class ballistic submarine.

The White House budget office has directed all department and agency heads to draw up plans for spending increases in fiscal year 2019 for activities that "fill a clear federal role" by preparing budget proposals that include options for a 5 percent increase above FY-18 requested levels, a change that could lift the Pentagon's base budget to $603 billion in FY-19, a nearly $29 billion boost.